


this is our daylily burden

by orphan_account



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bullying, Eating Disorders, Gen, Zankyou no Terror AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-18 20:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2360621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He, an attentive youth who has a smile like the sun on a hot summer day.<br/>He, a stoic prodigy with eyes like ice.<br/>Him, an unseen boy discovering if the world is really worth destroying.<br/>[Tentative drabbles at a potential AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Black

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspiration and song to play while reading this is [daylily](http://tsukiyamaho.tumblr.com/post/97425171857/in-this-lonely-trap-that-someone-arranged) by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure.

“This is what you call bullying, right? I’ve never seen it happen before, only on television.”

His voice is one filled with the attention-grabbing cheer of a carefree boy. The upperclassmen turn to sneer at him who is hanging off the side of the pool wall. He had indeed interrupted in the act of stereotypical gang bullying of myself, the bullied.

“No, no! We’re friends, see?” One of them pats my back and squeezes my shoulder tight. I wince and flinch away. He resorts to gripping my upper arm instead. The sweat drips down my back.

The other boy, an unfamiliar black haired youth sporting our uniform, blinks. His grin grows wide.

“Ah, I see. So this little boy just wanted to swim in this sweltering heat. Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” He bumps the base of his palm against his forehead in realization.

It seems as if he heard the whole conversation. The sweat on my arm is not all my own.

“What’s it to you? Can’t help if a friend,” the single bully in the same grade as me spits out the word in faintly veiled disgust, “wants to take a dip, no?”

“Absolutely correct!” The youth practically whoops.

He surprises us all by agilely scaling the wall and climbing on top of the roofing to jump into the chlorinated water with a splash that hits us from across the deck. The boys scoff and swear as they throw curses at the submerged boy.

For a moment, his descending figure had eclipsed the sky, highlighting the ends of his hair and his relaxed form. In the pool, drenched and dripping, he laughs jovially, genuinely enjoying the relief jumping in had provided.

For a moment, I am envious of this stranger who smiles like the sun.

A movement catches the corner of my eye. On a nearby raised walkway, another boy wearing our uniform gazes on at the scene below him, his form shaded by the trees above. His eyes are cold as ice behind square lenses, the opposite of their startling bright color.

I flee silently as the others are distracted. I think the boy in the water may have glanced at me once as I looked over my dimly throbbing shoulder.

Such a thing is impossible.

 

The rumors say the slighter one of the transfer students, the black haired boy, is Takao Kazunari. He came into class the first day soaking wet and in awe of the classroom and everything in it. Very childish but cute, they say.

Midorima Shintarou is the aloof, pretty boy who lies directly to a girl’s face when they ask for his phone number. It had immediately rung after the reply left his mouth to their disbelief. He is very weird, the girls present say. He probably hates the world and all things happy.

The gossip is forgotten the next day.

My appetite is not what it used to be. It is sickening to even look at a hamburger. Vanilla milkshakes go down smoother and appease my hunger better.

 

* * *

 

_Stop. Stop ringing. I’m fine. Leave me be. I am not like him. I’m fine. Enough. I will not. I can not—leave._

I clutch my head, then my stomach, and groan in pain. I did not wish to go on this trip. I considered it because I would be away from that suffocating place.

_I wish everyone would disappear._

_Aomine-kun._

 

* * *

 

“What will you do?”

Midorima-kun’s voice is surprisingly deep and commanding. The implied threat does help.

“I will repeat. You have two choices: die or become an accomplice.”

I had wished the world to disappear, but not me along with it. In this instant, my life, held in the hands of these dangerous people who showed up out of nowhere, desired to continue on.

“I want to live.”

There is a pause.

“Acceptable. You will go to the third floor and wait for Takao. No matter what you see or hear, get to that floor.”

I am currently on the eleventh level. A pang of anxiety flits through my mind as I regard the spiraling flight of stairs. I almost wished I had participated in PE more often.

The second I set foot onto the designated floor, the wall of windows opposite of me bursts in an explosion of glass and dusty debris. What is left is a gaping hole overlooking the wrecked and disorganized street.

There are several unlucky pedestrians looking up, but a helmeted figure on a motorcycle stands out. He watches, expectantly.

I come into view cautiously and he raises his arms.

“Jump, Kuroko!” says a familiar voice.

I would have hesitated if the ground beneath me was not rumbling and shaking. It prompts me to trust him, if only temporarily, to catch my body before I fall.

He does.

Takao-kun rides to a secluded untouched area from hysteria surrounded by abundant forest. There is so much green. It is an otherwise wonderful day.

There, he waits with his phone in hand.

“You chose to be an accomplice. You can never go back.”

He challenges me with eyes like ice.

He contemplates me with a smile like the sun on a hot summer day.

I stand there, watching the interesting pair of cold and warmth with dumbfounded lost eyes.

Had I hoped something to change? Were these two the answers to my unspoken wish?

I can only hope they are miracles sent in the form of mortals. The havoc they have wrought rightfully labels them as the unsuspecting harbingers of chaos.


	2. Jade

The whir of a white noise reverberates in and out his ears. The weeds and shrubbery fades into a black, burnt blur. A murder of birds flies overhead. Above are the shades of a blazing sunset. A circular structure’s shadow casts dark against it.

What is a sunset? He has seen them in books. Their existence seem miraculous.

The fence looms ahead. He and Hawk reach it and start climbing. He searches for the other one.

Red.

Red is behind them, collapsed and huffing.

He shouts.

Red shakes.

The gray fluttering ashes consume his cries.

 

The room is hot. The comforter had slipped to the floor some time while he was asleep. He sits up as the end of what he had seen replays behind his lids. His head hurts.

“You had that nightmare again.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Figured,” Hawk—no, Takao says from the couch. “Is it because Kuroko Tetsuya has the same eyes as those kids back then?”

“That’s not it,” he denies. Takao raises an eyebrow. “Maybe.”

“Shin-chan, that’s not good. You haven’t had it in a while,” Takao reprimands with a wagged finger.

“What we are doing has brought it on,” he says, “not that boy.”

Takao hums, unconvinced.

He lowers himself down from the loft and walks past his childhood friend to the window. The view of the city lights glows unnaturally.

“We are to not involve anyone else. Our purpose is for us alone.”

His silence is answer enough, but he replies anyway.

“Alright, -Jade-. I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

The old name is the first and last relic of that place he has. Takao only uses it when he is serious.

The institution had a sadistic sense of humor in naming their “children”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt gemstones that corresponds with colors would suit the top "chosen" ones better instead of numbers. Plain color names don't seem that creative. The less gifted children received names like plants or animals.


	3. Detective

 “Yo, Kagami, check this out!”

“Kiyoshi-senpai, _another_ cat video?”

The sturdy brown-haired man blinks as he goes for his third donut.

“No, it’s not this time! Look, these people posted a video calling themselves Sphinx.” Kiyoshi shifts his monitor to show Kagami the feed.

The view count is in the ten thousands and is steadily increasing with each passing second. Kagami glances at it for a moment, intrigued at what looked to be two teenagers wearing masks introducing themselves and announcing a riddle. He passes it as another publicity stunt from kids who wanted attention.

“Aren’t you going to solve it?” Kiyoshi asks.

“I’m done with that detective stuff,” Kagami says dismissively as he stretches out on the couch. “Now, it’s just this closet and my idle days ‘til retirement.”

Kiyoshi purses his lips, genuinely stumped. “That’s a long way to go. Good thing you have me, right?”

“Right.”

Kiyoshi chuckles to himself and resumes fiddling on the computer.

 

* * *

 

First is the tower. Second is the police station. Third is a moe-moe web game. What’s different this time? They know it has something to do with the tale of Oedipus. The matter at hand is only which one it is.

“Oi, you’re the geezer who took over that live broadcast, Kagami Taiga, was it?”

A black-haired ikemen is standing in the doorway of the archives, seething in irritation.

“Yes, and I’m only in my early 30s. And you are?” Kagami asks, returning his focus on the screen. Kiyoshi looks between them in confusion.

“I’m Himuro! Himuro Tatsuya!” Himuro steps further into the cramped room and grips the sides of the monitor from behind. “Don’t do anything head director didn’t order you to.”

Kagami looks up at him, nonplussed. “I’m just doing a little investigation on my own, no big deal.”

“That’s why I’m telling you,” Himuro leans back and rubs the space between his eyebrows angrily, “don’t do anything! We got this under control.”

His fingers pause over the keyboard. “What?”

Himuro glances over at him, a little bit in triumph. “We have experts going over to the suspected place where Sphinx put the bombs. So, Kagami, don’t worry your head over this anymore.”

Kagami stands to his full height, though it’s not that much of a difference. “Sphinx said if we interfered, they wouldn’t stop the next one.”

“Who said they aren’t lying to us?” Himuro shrugs, unintimidated. “They’re just playing with us, detective. The safety of the citizens is more important than the words of a terrorist.”

“But have they ever gone back on their word before?” Kagami mutters to himself. He shakes his head, sensing something more to this whole situation. Sphinx aren’t simple enough that they would allow it to end like this.

He sits back down and contemplates the pink sparkly web page again. Himuro lets out a sigh in disbelief and heads out the door.

“You were a detective long before me, Kagami,” Himuro throws over his shoulder, “but don’t think you have any special privileges in this case. I know what happened with the official.”

Kagami grits his teeth. Of course, everyone knew about that. But, that little shit…He sends a half-hearted glare his way, but the younger man is already gone.

 

 

That was a few hours ago. It’s five minutes until eight, the designated time Sphinx set for their surprise to go off.

He thinks of all the versions of the Sphinx’s riddle there are. He recalls the answers Oedipus might have given.

_The broadcast._ The live broadcast across the whole nation. They definitely couldn’t have missed it.

His direct, impulsive challenge to Sphinx.

The direct challenge Sphinx sent to the online world.

Surely, this couldn’t be their response?

But it fits.

_[Kagami Taiga]_ he types into the password locked screen.

The anime girl waves her wand in congratulations and the page is showered in tons of sparkles.

The timer on it still ticks with bold red numbers.

Kagami’s phone rings.

He lets it buzz for a few intervals until he answers cautiously. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

“Hello?”

“Good evening. This is Sphinx Number One.” His voice over the phone is lower but easily recognizable.

He can feel his phone get warmer in his hands. “Why me?” Kagami asks, straight to the point.

“You seem to have an inkling of what our true purpose is, Kagami-san,” he says. He knows his name and his phone number. It sends chills down his spine. “And you have the smarts to figure out our riddles, anyhow. Was it fun?”

Kagami clicks his tongue. How dare he think this is all a game?

“Why hasn’t it stopped?” Kagami asks once more.

“They interfered.” His tone is dozens of degrees icier. “If it was just you, I might have made an exception. They did not heed my warning, and thus, they will have to pay.”

_No. They wouldn't hurt those people._   _Could Sphinx have changed their ways?_

"I will have you know this time is special. Different, even. You have influenced that, Kagami Taiga-san. You have our thanks."

"Wait, Sphinx!" Kagami yells into the receiver.

There is silence on the other end of the line.

"Why are you doing all this?"

A short, amused chuckle. "If I told you that, what would be the point in all we are about to do?" he says. "It's all there, except in scattered pieces. You will be satisfied once everything is put together and brought into light. Until next time, Kagami Taiga."

The call ends. He turns off his phone and drags his hands through his hair in muted frustration. 

"Are you alright?"

Kagami jumps in his seat, forgetting Kiyoshi was in the room with him. "No," he replies.

"Thought so. I've never seen you like this before, Kagami." Kiyoshi searches his pale face, worried about his archive slack-off buddy.

"This brings me back to the days when I still had a desk in the main office." Kagami leans back in the worn chair and sighs. "I didn't know they added new people, though. Himura, was it?"

"'Himuro,'" Kiyoshi corrects through a mouth stuffed with donut remains.

He doesn't care. It's not like he has any desire of going back to that place, anyway. 

 

* * *

 

It's like Sphinx knows when he needs them, or specifically when he doesn't, just like the antagonist of a superhero comic. The only thing is who would be the real bad guys here, the terrorists who ask him to help stop the explosive filled plane or the foreign government who instigated it?

Kagami is a law-abiding citizen of this country, and the ones who endanger the lives of the ones living here are the true threat.

"What will you do? Quick, Kagami."

Sphinx Number One's inquiring could be interpreted as taunting, yet the sliver of panic betrays that image. 

_Like a tough kid trying to be brave._

"Yes. But only for this time."

A small nearly indiscernible exhale and he is giving Kagami instructions to the place in the airport where they would be able to control an unmanned plane.

Of course.  _The control tower._

"Taiga! Where are you going?" Himuro asks as he and two other guys, Izuki and Hyuuga, run into each other at the elevator.

"Control tower," Kagami answers curtly. There isn't enough time for chitchat.

"We'll go with you," Hyuuga proposes. "For some reason, there was a lot of security. It explains a lot if those bastard instigators were cooped up there."

Izuki pats his back friendly. "Yeah, those guys can't just take over our case just like that! What would be the point in these badges then?" He slips his badge smoothly from his sleeve like a magician and showcases it grandly as it shines in the elevator lights.

Kagami is about to retort that it's dangerous and they could lose their jobs, but they're already on the floor to the entrance. They look at each other and run.

Past the unruly foreign guards who wouldn't let them in, up the next elevator he slipped through to lock out the other personnel, and he's brought up to a barren staircase. There are voices above where it leads. English, he realizes, one of his best subjects.

Judging from what attitude they have shown them so far, getting them to cooperate won't be pretty, especially with that fiery redhead taking charge. The boy nearly stabbed him the first time they met, all because he didn't address him with a "-san". Last Kagami recalled, he was twice the brat's age.

As a member of the police force, he is granted with privileges normal citizens don't have. Now, it's perfect to use to his advantage. He prepares himself as he steps up to give the bastards the ultimatum worth the lives of the innocents in the airport.

"Don't move."

He points the gun at the closest person situated near him. They flinch back in fright, noticing its lethal black gleam.

There are multiple people within the tower, but the two most important in the center are the ones he challenges with his fiercest expression. The first is the pretty man who might take some time getting through to, and lastly the boy.

The dangerous sheen to the heterochromia in the boy's left eye is almost enough to last Kagami's satisfaction until next week. 

"Do as I order, or I'll shoot."

_Alex, look at me, your proud baby detective, threatening some other country's government agents with a gun like a criminal to stop their bombs. What would you think if you saw me, now?_

He wants to laugh, but he won't, because negotiations would go smoother without such a misplaced action.

"You'll pay for this," the redhead snarls hatefully.

Kagami would rather be sane than sorry.

 

* * *

 

He is feeling so very sorry he let them get away. He can see them laughing as they drive off unheeded to everyone else. The madness behind him is meaningless and no one can leave the tower until the lone exit clears up.

Sphinx Number One had saluted him as if he was a comrade and had done his duty well.

What bull. 

_Can you imagine it, Alex? How much of a fool I am for letting these kids play me like a chess piece on their board?_

It's all a game to them, especially to the redhead. Somehow, he and Sphinx share a strange relation, the loathing that spat out from his mismatched eyes saying much for his interference. The tall pretty man, Reo, held the boy back from lashing out at him. Kagami had noticed the twitch of ringed fingers so close to the hidden inner pocket of the boy's suit jacket. A person as self-destructive as he is bound to have a need of assurance for their own safety.

But those two, it's something more than that. Their efforts to stop bombs by fakes and purposely making it so that when their own destruct, there are no casualties, is by no means ordinary thinking of a terrorist.

For Sphinx, they are trying to convey a message. What that is supposed to be is up to everyone else to figure out. 

Kagami may think he's overreaching his influence and self-importance a bit, but he has a feeling the puzzle is presented for _him_ to solve.

Rather than the problem, he is stumped at what he will do when he receives the results.

Maybe he will end up feeling sorry all over again. Alex says it's a bad habit of his to empathize with anything of human nature.

He's sorry for that, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean for this to get too lengthy, but these are only supposed to be drabbles...a pretty long drabble by normal standards, but still.


	4. Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ['Break the silence and come with me. All of your desires i'll set them free.'](http://sheofficial.bandcamp.com/track/break-the-silence)

_'Oedipus was cursed with the fate of killing his father. He would become a king and wed his own mother. He would lose his sight and listen to the riddle of the Sphinx, half woman half lion—’_

“Hey, Kuroko!”

I hurriedly try to catch the book before it drops. Safe in my hands, I look at Takao-kun. He waves in a come hither way from across the aisle. I slip the book back on its shelf and approach warily.

“Do you know what happens when you put these two things together?” he asks. He has a small mentos pill and a cup of something with bubbles.

Before I can answer, he drops it into the drink and thrusts it into my hands. It fizzles over the rim and flows messily down my fingers.

While I am frantically searching for napkins or anything to wipe the mess, Takao-kun has a hand to his mouth, sloppily muffling his laughter. I am not certain what he is laughing at, me or the reaction.

All of a sudden, he straightens. He crooks a finger as he nods towards the exit.

Outside, he goes against the flow of the crowd, unheeded to some people’s protests. The rest move aside to make way for him.

“This doesn’t make you special or anything,” Takao-kun is saying. He has not looked back to make sure I am following. “We’re not letting you off lightly.”

He halts and swivels around, his eyes sharp and unsmiling and his mouth curled upwards dangerously like a cat.

“Make one wrong move, and you’re dead.”

 

The police are on our tail. Takao-kun accelerates until the engine is roaring with life and the cars fall behind.

An air of ease fills me as the wind tickles my hair and the sounds of the city drift away. I do something I have not done in ages.

I laugh.

Takao-kun flinches in surprise as he glances back at me and feels my arms shaking. My laughter is not as deep nor loud as his but breathy and clear.

“What’s so funny?” he asks.

I do not answer. I clutch his chest closer so he can hear my voice.

“Please, tell me. Will you two really destroy the world?”

The thought of them actually destroying it makes the situation funnier. My world is already on the brink of disaster, and the mood of breaking what has caged and chased me—this society—gives a sensation of living free without restraint.

As I giggle, Takao-kun begins to join as well.

We are both laughing, not a care of what will and might happen. It is easy to do so than to think of all the things wrong with everything else.

“No.”

Midorima-kun is perched against the door, arms crossed and lip stern.

“But he doesn’t have anywhere to stay,” Takao-kun explains, for the first time appearing nervous.

Midorima-kun sends him a disapproving look.

Takao-kun sighs and has his hands ready to reason with him. He does that a lot, express himself through his hands and body.

Strange, how did it become two Takao-kuns and three Midorima-kuns standing there and crying my name from the floor?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will I ever get to Takao's POV, you ask? (it's not because his POV is hard to write or anything...probably) I like writing Takao from other people's perspectives a lot, though.  
> I guess I should write these nonsensical drabbles on the assumption that people haven't watched znt, so there might be some parts that don't make sense and others that are left out. Sections might be out of order, too. I don't know, POVs like Kuroko's first person, Midorima's nameless third and Kagami's POV are easier. Kuroko is very poetic while Kagami tells it how it is. Midorima is 99 percent angst.


	5. Hacker

_No, no, no, no, no! Who on earth has the skills to hack me?_

As window upon window pops up and he inputs multiple commands to close them, the white noise is back.

He winces and clutches his head, forcefully shutting down the laptop and roughly tossing it aside.

_“One more time!”_

_He runs. He is being chased._

_He has to remind himself this is all a game. But the games with that boy are never just that._

_“One more time!” The boy sings again in warning._

_He is nearer now. He has not found a hiding spot yet._

_He can almost imagine the boy is onto him. His flaming hair would show up and engulf him. He suspects it is partly the reason why the boy is always “it”. No one could mistake that color._

_He has no room to talk, with his equally strange coloring as uncommon as the rest of the other ones._

_“Ready or not!”_

_The boy sings harmoniously then lowers his voice to a murmur as close as his ear._

_“Here I come.”_

“Shit!” he shouts in realization. He snatches up his cell phone and dials Takao’s number.

“Shin-chan?” Takao sounds confused.

“It’s Garnet,” he says. “He’s the one who hacked into my firewall and ruined the reception.”

“What do we do?”

“I’ll go to the station. Can you disable the cameras?”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Takao affirms.

“Good.”

* * *

 

He’s too late. The elderly woman shouldn’t have been there. There was no time to detonate it.

The back of his shirt is utterly tattered and in ruins, their plans along with it. The pain there is faint but can be ignored at the moment.

His phone vibrates with a new message in his back pocket. The ringtones of other devices resound across the underground platform in unison. Confusion entails.

~

_[I found you, jade ✂]_

~  
Garnet has played them straight into his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back and forth perspectives...


End file.
